


like son, like father

by Metatron



Series: Among You [2]
Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Adopting a mini-crewmate, Aliens, Bean knows only two words and goddamnit he's going to use them, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gratuitous use of italics, Horror, Just an astronaut and his alien son, Lime is such an asshole jesus christ, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Worldbuilding, basically my headcanon of what the heck the mini-crewmates actually are, its about the angst...and the fluff, local man adopts alien baby; more at 10, stop cursing in front of the child Orange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:14:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26770093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metatron/pseuds/Metatron
Summary: Orange never wanted a mini-crewmate of his own. But when one of his crewmates is ejected for being an Imposter, Orange finds himself adopting the one she left behind....What he can't figure out is if they're supposed to have this many TEETH.(aka, what happens if a regular crewmate adopts a mini-Imposter)
Series: Among You [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942543
Comments: 97
Kudos: 1043
Collections: Anodyne fics





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic takes place in the same 'verse as my other Among Us fic (which I am definitely still working on, This idea just possessed me and forced me to write it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE), just on a different ship. So the colors from that fic and this one aren't the same characters.
> 
> The other more intense tags are mostly for stuff that happens in the next chapters. Violence rating is for events that happen in the last chapter, and Mature rating is mostly because of that, just to be safe.

“You know, you should really consider getting one,” said Pink, wiggling her fingers at the Mini crewmate rolling around happily in her lap. “They’re really easy to care for, and I’ve noticed that having him to look after really calms me down.”

“Uh, okay,” said Orange, wishing that Pink would just leave him alone and let him get back to working on his tasks in peace.

“I mean it!” she continued, oblivious to his obvious lack of interest. “They’re just so great! And they can even grow up to be pretty much normal humans, if you purchase the extra package of course. Otherwise they just stay this cute forever! Isn’t that _wight, Mr. Fluffykins? You just stay widdle and cute forwever, don’t you?_ ” Pink said in a frankly embarrassing baby-talk voice, tickling the small blob as it squeaked in delight.

Orange resolutely stayed focused on rewiring the electrical panel. Just a couple more wires, and he’d be able to move on to his next task, leaving Pink and her Mini alone in Security. He was paid to fix this damn spaceship, not make small talk with obnoxious crewmates like Pink.

“—and they’re not even really that expensive anymore! I mean, I know they costed _buckets_ of credits back when Lilipu-Tian Corp. started making them, but now they’re actually pretty affordable! And ever since MIRA started allowing crewmates to bring them on missions, there’s actually been a spike in productivity!! And plus, you’d make _such_ a great father, Orange!” Pink babbled on.

“Uh-huh,” said Orange, barely paying attention as he repaired the last wire. He stood up from where he had been crouched down in front of the panel and slid his tools back into his tool belt. “Anyways. It was…uh, _great_ , talking to you Pink, but I’ve got a bunch of tasks to do in Navigation, so uh, I’ll see you later I guess.”

“Of course!! You’re such a great conversationalist Orange, my conversations with you are my _favorite_. You’re always so interesting! Anywho!! Mr. Fluffykins and I will see you around, won’t we, Mr. Fluffykins? Say _bwuh-bye to Mwster Owange, Fluffles! Bwuh- bye!!!!!!!_ ” she said, holding up the pink Mini’s stubby little arm to move it in a waving motion while the thing squeaked out a noise that _possibly_ could have been a goodbye if you were either very hard of hearing, or maybe just delusional. Orange thought Pink likely leaned towards the latter.

“Yeah….bye,” he said, glancing back at Pink and her Mini one last time before scooting out the door and turning south towards the Lower Engine.

 _Weird,_ Orange thought, shaking his head slightly. _Just plain weird_.

He knew all Mini owners weren’t as…eccentric as Pink of course, but overall he still found the whole thing very strange. The Minis had been around for a few years now; the flagship product of the huge multi-planet conglomerate Lilipu-Tian Corp. They were a bizarre but marvelous invention—tiny, humanoid beings ( _All Containing REAL, GENUINE, Human DNA!_ _™)_ all designed to look like they were wearing tiny space suits _(The Cutest Critters In Space!_ _™)_. They were billed as being the perfect combination between a child and a pet—with the intelligence of a very young toddler, they were created to be perfectly cute and loveable and highly affectionate, “ideal” for people who wanted kids but without having to worry about them getting big, annoying, and rebellious and for people who wanted something slightly more intelligent than the average animal. The Minis also didn’t need a high amount of care, designed with a metabolism that only required them to be fed once or twice a day, and washed every week or so, and no need to go to the bathroom _(Absolutely NO Dirty Diapers or Messy Litter Boxes!_ _™)_.

And the _“best”_ part? If you decided you _really_ loved your Mini and wanted it to be a real child, for only a 20,000 extra credits, you could buy the upgrade package, which included the DNA hormone injections and intelligence plugins that would cause your Mini to develop into a real, functioning human child—even eventually developing into a real, functioning human adult! ( _Just Like **Lilipu-Tian Corp’s** Other Landmark Product, The REPLIQUE-- a full human clone developed entirely from lab-grown DNA! Just As Functional As A Natural Human!)_

Orange, very frankly, thought it was barbaric. He knew the things were popular among certain groups of people, but really…he just couldn’t understand it. They seemed like silly, shallow replacements for actual human children. Not to mention the ethics of a semi-human being who couldn’t grow up unless its _owner_ wanted it to made Orange’s stomach churn. He already knew he lived in a late-stage capitalist dystopia after he’d had to take a job working in MIRA’s _notorious-for-being-attacked-by-terrifying-space-monsters_ space fleet just to get by; this kind of just felt like it was rubbing it in.

Sighing, Orange pressed the button to open the door to Admin, giving it a not-so-gentle kick when it got stuck. _Damn stupid bucket of bolts. Nothing ever works right on this ship_. He groaned in despair when he saw the state of the room—his other crewmates seemed to consider Admin a breakroom and never bothered to clean up after themselves when they were done, leaving papers and scrap bits of electronics strewn everywhere among the healthy dusting of meal packet wrappers that coated the floor.

Orange had brought up his fellow crewmates (what he considered to be) fairly serious lack of cleanliness in group meetings before, and how awful it made it to try to do tasks in Admin, but nothing ever seemed to change. Irritably, he kicked a little bit of the debris aside to make room for a place for his tools on the floor as he opened up the electrical panel to begin working.

Almost immediately, however, Orange was interrupted by the blaring sound of an emergency meeting alarm coming over the intercom, startling him and causing him to whack his helmet against the open panel.

 _“Fucking—I swear to fucking god—”_ he cursed, slamming the panel closed. Of all the alarms on the ship, Orange hated this one the most. The O2 and Reactor alarms he understood, because if those failed everyone on the ship would be dead. But the emergency meeting alarm was just _annoying_ , particularly because some of Orange’s crewmates had a very liberal opinion of what constituted an _emergency_.

( _No Lime,_ their captain, Green, had had to say on one such occasion, _You losing your extra pair of socks is not “an emergency”)_

Overall it just disrupted everyone’s tasks and irritated the hell out of Orange, because every minute he had to spend at those stupid meetings was another minute he had to spend with his stupid crewmates. Huffing in anger, Orange gathered up his things and headed up to the cafeteria. Thankfully, he thought, he didn’t have to walk very far.

He was one of the first ones there, preceded by only Green and Purple who were sat at the center table with solemn looks on their faces.

“Orange,” Green said, his normally stern voice somehow even tougher, “Please take a seat. I’m sure the others will be along shortly.”

Orange frowned, thrown off by the unusually grim tone. Green was the type that seemed like he was physically incapable of relaxing, like, _ever_ , but right now he seemed especially tense.

“…Alright,” Orange said, carefully taking a seat next to Purple, who looked like she had been crying.

 _Shit_ , he thought. _Something REALLY must be wrong._

“Hey, what’s up Green?” said a voice from the far side of the cafeteria, entering from the hallway leading from weapons. “Someone steal your captain’s hat again?”

_Ugh._

It was Lime and his brain-dead cronies, Yellow and Cyan, aka the worst people Orange had ever met, aka the most hideous color combination in the entire galaxy, aka Orange’s least favorite crewmates besides maybe Pink. They _never_ seemed to be able to take anything seriously and treated this whole space mission as a joke. Even Orange, who hated every second of his existence in this spaceship and would rather be literally anywhere else in the universe if he didn’t have bills to pay, could realize that if you were out in the middle of fucking space with a huge unforgiving void of DEATH mere inches away, you had to kind of take _some_ things seriously.

“Lime. Your unusual punctuality is appreciated,” said Green, clearly not in any sort of mood to deal with Lime’s bullshit right now.

“Yeah, yeah, Cap. Let’s just cut to the chase,” he scoffed, sliding over a chair from another table and propping his feet up on it.

“As soon as the others—” Green started, but was interrupted by Pink running into the room, clutching her Mini crewmate tightly in her arms.

“Oh my God! Oh my God, Green, what’s wrong? What’s the matter? We’re all going to die, aren’t we? The reactor has failed and we’re all going to die!” she wailed.

“I think you’d have noticed by now if the reactor had failed, Pink,” said Purple quietly, speaking for the first time since Orange had arrived.

“The reactor is fine for now, Pink. That’s not why we’re here,” said Green, as White entered the room, followed closely by Grey.

White was the only other member of their mission that had a Mini, which currently seemed to be fast asleep on top of her pack. Orange didn’t really know why she had it, as she didn’t parade it around like Pink did which Orange believed was part of the appeal of having one of the damn things, like how people back on the colony worlds and Earth sometimes carried around yippy little dogs in their handbags. Given, Orange hadn’t interacted with White a lot and honestly didn’t know a whole lot about her, but from what he gathered she just seemed to carry the Mini around and feed it when needed. Kind of a waste of all that money if that’s all you did with it, Orange thought.

“White. Grey. Since you’re here we can finally begin,” said Green, rising to his feet.

“Wait!” said Pink. “We’re not all here! Where’s Blue?”

“That is the reason for this meeting,” he said grimly. “Blue is dead.”

 _“WHAT??”_ Pink shrieked.

“Wait a sec…Blue kicked the bucket?” asked Lime, sitting up in his chair. “What the hell?”

“Blue is dead,” Green continued, purposefully ignoring his unruly crewmates, “And it wasn’t an accident.”

“What do you mean, _‘it wasn’t an accident’_?” Orange said, finally piping up. “What happened to her?”

“She was murdered,” said Purple, tears evident in her voice.

“I bet it was Orange,” said Lime.

“What the _fuck,_ Lime?” Orange yelled, throwing Lime a dirty glare. “Why _the hell_ would it be me?”

“Uh, I donno, you’re just always actin’ kinda sus, dude,” Lime said flippantly, as if he hadn’t just accused Orange of killing someone. “You just like…never talk to anyone and you’re super weird and nobody likes you and you don’t like me and _everybody_ likes me and I just think that’s super suspicious so I think you killed her.”

“ _I. Would. Never,”_ hissed Orange though clenched teeth. He couldn’t believe the… _audacity_ of this guy. _God_ , he hated him. “How the fuck do I know _you_ didn’t do it?

“Wow, throwing accusations around like that? Sus,” chimed in Cyan, never missing an opportunity to fulfill his role as ‘Lime Crony #1.’

“Yeah, like _wow_ , you’re getting super upset, Orange. You never display this much emotion, so that makes you look pretty guilty,” Yellow agreed. _And there’s ‘Lime Crony #2,’ right on schedule._

“This is RIDICULOUS! We don’t even know where the body was!” yelled Orange, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

“Uh, I don’t know, why don’t you tell us where you were and then we’ll know,” said Cyan mockingly.

“Yeah Orange,” Lime said, smirking at him coldly. “Where were you last?”

“He was in Navigation!” interjected Pink frantically, grinning at him as if to say _Don’t Worry!!! I’ve Got Your Back!!!! Yay!! Besties!!!_

Orange frowned. “Uh, no, I was in Admin, doing wires.”

“No, no, silly! You were in Navigation!” Pink insisted. “You were in Security with me and Mr. Fluffykins, and then you finished your task and said you were going to Navigation because you had a bunch of tasks there!”

“I don’t have any tasks in Navigation today—” he started to say, until he remembered. _Oh. Shit_. Curse Pink’s _annoyingly_ good memory and curse his attempt at deception. _He’d told her he was going to Navigation so she wouldn’t come and annoy him later in Admin._

“W..what do you mean?” Pink said, voice filling with hurt. “Did…did you _lie_ to me, Orange?” She sniffled, eyes starting to well up with tears.

“Yeah Orange, did you _lie to her_ about where you were so you could go murder Blue in peace?” Yellow taunted.

“No, guys, you’ve got to believe me I—”

“ENOUGH!” boomed Green, startling everyone into silence. “These accusations are pointless. Orange is innocent.”

“I mean, like, how do you know tho, he just admitted to lying—” Cyan began.

“We were on cams,” said Purple, quietly at first, but then continued, “We were on cams! And Green and I…we saw… _God_ …we saw…”

“It’s okay Purple,” Green started to say, “I can—”

“NO!” Purple suddenly yelled. “I have to say this! Green and I were on cams, and we saw, both of us, plain as day,” she turned slowly and raised a finger, pointing, “We saw _you_ MURDER HER, White!”

The crew’s heads snapped over, everyone turning to look at White, who raised her hands in surrender. “Listen, guys, I can explain—”

“Explain what exactly?” Purple yelled, eyes streaming with tears. “Explain how you stabbed Blue with a knife? Drove it right into her chest and watched her bleed out? Explain how you _killed my GIRLFRIEND?_ ”

“It’s not what it looks like—”

“Vote her out,” said Lime apathetically. “She must be an Imposter. She’s a danger to the ship. We need to get rid of her.”

White’s face became about the same color as her suit. “No, please, _no_ , you don’t understand! I know you think I must be one of those alien monsters but I’m _not_ , _I swear, I promise—_ ”

“Restrain her,” commanded Green, and Grey quickly pinned the woman’s arms behind her back, causing the Mini which had been asleep on her pack to fall to the floor with a pained squeak.

“Unfortunately I think I’m going to have to agree with Lime for once,” said Green. “There is no denying what Purple and I saw. We cannot risk the possibility of you hurting anyone else when we’re so far from any help. We have no way to lock you up or contain you so we are left with only one option.”

He paused for a second, letting the weight of his words sink in for the crew. “As is custom, however, we’ll do this by a vote. So I’m asking you now, for the safety of each of you and of our ship, do you choose to vote out White?”

“Guys, please, just listen to me—” White pleaded.

“Yes,” said Purple fiercely, not taking her eyes off White. “I vote for her ejection.”

“Yes from me as well,” said Lime, voice still sounding as if he couldn’t care less.

_God, Orange hated him._

“Yup,” replied Yellow, followed quickly by Cyan’s “Yeah.”

“It’s also a yes for me,” said Grey in her quiet, whispery monotone.

Green shook his head. He didn’t look happy about it, but he said, “For the safety of everyone on board, I have to vote yes.”

“I…” Pink started, looking conflicted. “I don’t—”

“She murdered Blue. She’s a threat to our safety,” reminded Purple.

Pink sat in silence for a moment, staring down at her Mini which was playing with its legs on the table. “I…..yes. I vote yes,” she said after a minute.

“That just leaves Orange,” said Green. “Even though we already have a majority, we still need to hear his opinion.”

Orange thought for a second, weighing the options in his head. Finally, quietly, he said, “Yes. Eject her.”

“That’s that then,” said Purple darkly. “Well, I don’t see why we should waste any time. Take her to the airlock.”

“NO! NO, I’M NOT EVIL, I’M NOT EVEN AN IMPOSTER!” White screamed struggling with Grey, Lime, and Cyan, who were pulling her away to the airlock door. “YOU HAVE TO LISTEN! PLEASE—”

White’s three captors hauled her into the airlock roughly, Yellow hitting the button to slam the door closed behind her as soon as Grey, Lime, and Cyan were out of the way. White continued banging on the door and screaming, but no one could hear her through the shut doors.

“Orange, control console!” Green commanded. Orange forced his legs into motion, walking over to the panel that contained the controls for the airlock. He knew what Green was asking. Their specific model of ship had safeguards in place to prevent the airlock from being opened if the engines were on and a life sign was detected in the airlock. Orange was the only one on the crew with the technical know-how to quickly override those safeguards.

It took only a few, horrific moments of disabling protocols and tricking the program into thinking the airlock was empty and the ship wasn’t in motion, all while White was still pounding on the door.

“It’s ready,” Orange said softly.

“Alright,” Green said with a pause. “Do it.”

Orange opened the airlock’s outer doors. It was so simple, really, for such a momentous act. All it took was the push of a button.

Everyone stood there in silence for a minute, no one daring to say anything.

“Okay,” Green said, even his voice sounding a little strained. “Everyone back to work. Grey and I will take care of the…well, Grey and I will take of…. _things_. Everyone, as you were.”

One by one, the crewmates left the cafeteria, eventually leaving Orange alone. He sat down in the chair Lime had pulled out before, allowing his head to fall into his hands.

 _God._ Who could have known that White was an Imposter? I mean, that’s what she had to have been, right? Why else would someone murder one of their crewmates out of nowhere?

Admittedly, Orange didn’t remember as much about the Imposters from training as he probably should have. He wasn’t super interested in all this spacey research stuff; he’d only taken this job for the cash, _sue him_. (Actually, on second thought—don’t sue him. Money troubles were what had gotten him in this position in the first place.) He vaguely recalled that the Imposters were allegedly some sort of alien-shapeshifter…thingies? that infiltrated MIRA ships and bases and killed people. And also ate them. Apparently they’d first shown up on some planet that Orange couldn’t tell you the name of if he tried because they had been, like…digging in the ice or something? Ice-coring? He didn’t remember. What he did know was that MIRA took the Imposter threat seriously and so did all his crewmates, hence the reason why it wasn’t entirely rare for people to get thrown out of airlocks like White these days.

What he didn’t understand was White. I mean, weren’t the Imposters supposed to be like these big scary aliens who had big fangs and tentacles are everything? Aliens who were notorious for _ripping people’s heads off?_ If that was the case, then why did White stab Blue? And, a terrible little voice in the back of Orange’s head said, what if she _had_ a reason for killing Blue? What if she’d been defending herself? Why hadn’t they heard her out before killing her? What if—

There was a tiny noise from under the table, ripping Orange away from his spiraling thoughts.

“Wha..? he said, leaning down.

And there, clinging to one of the legs of the table was— _Oh God_. It was White’s Mini, looking up at him through it’s little white visor. _Shit._ In the scuffle, they’d all forgotten that White had the thing; that it had fallen to the floor when she was dragged away.

“Maa?” It squeaked, tucking itself slightly behind the table leg it was clinging too.

“H..hey little guy,” he said gently, trying not to scare it. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

The Mini peeked its head out from behind the leg. “Maa…ma?” it said, and crap, from what he had seen from Pink’s Mini he’d convinced himself that the things couldn’t actually talk, but it really sounded like the creature was trying to say ‘mama.’

“Mama…mama’s not here right now. She…she had to go away,” Orange said, guilt rising in his chest and making him feel sick.

The Mini slowly let go from the table leg and took a few cautious steps toward Orange.

“Maaa?”

Orange bit his lip. “No…your mama is gone, little one,” he said.

It took another little step closer to him, nearly within Orange’s reach from where he had crouched down next to the table.

“Maa…no?” it squeaked.

Orange took a deep breath. “She…died. Mama isn’t coming back.”

“MaaNo??” the Mini said again, a little more frantically this time, looking towards the airlock. Shit, so it had seen what had happened, then. _“MaaNo!!”_

It flopped down on its tiny side, beginning to make noises that sounded awfully like crying, repeating ‘ma’ and ‘no’ over and over in it’s squealy voice.

“Hey, hey, no, don’t cry, it’s fine!” Orange said hurriedly, trying to calm it down before anyone else heard it and walked back into the Cafeteria. “No, uh, it’s fine! You don’t need to cry, please don’t cry!”

He carefully reached one of his gloved hands over and gently touched the Mini’s side, causing it to recoil. Orange quickly pulled his hand back as the little creature continued to sob.

“No, it’s….uh…you’re going to be okay,” he tried again, slowly reaching out a second time and softly petting its side. The action seemed to calm the Mini, seeing as its cries gradually slowed down as he continued to pet it. Eventually when it was calmed down enough, he scooped it up in his hands and slowly brought it up to his face so he could fully examine it.

It looked just like Pink’s Mini—a small, vaguely humanoid chubby body styled after an astronaut suit like the one he himself wore, with tiny stubby legs and arms. The only difference was the color—instead of pink, this Mini was white. _(Like Her suit had been, a traitorous voice in his head said, which he told to shut up)_

“Hey, look at you, you’re kinda cute actually,” Orange said, wiggling his fingers at its belly. It squealed and kicked its legs in his hand, obviously enjoying the attention. “Yeah, you’re not so bad, are you?”

It stared up at him earnestly.

“Maa?”

“Yeah, your maa…I mean, _shit_ , I don’t think any of the others will want to look after you, and Pink’s already busy….but I can’t leave you to, I mean….. _somebody’s_ gotta look after you, right?”

“Ma…maa,” it said again.

Orange felt his heart melting, most assuredly against his will.

“Yeah, alright. Damn it all to hell. I guess I’m your mama now, little bean. You know what? I don’t…I don’t know what White called you, but…I suppose that’s up to me now. So I’m naming you Bean.”

Bean squeaked, wiggling his legs and Orange squeezed him gently.

“Alright Bean, let’s fix this goddamn spaceship.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re a good boy, Bean,” he said. “You deserve to be kept away from meanies like Lime, isn’t that right? Lime’s just a big old meanie pants with a stick up his ass and undiagnosed personality problems and a vendetta against my life.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to only be two chapters, but when I was looking over what I wrote, I decided that because of the length it would be better suited as three. So look out for the last chapter coming soon!

The first thing Orange did was take Bean with him back to his quarters, clutching the Mini in his hand and hoping that he wouldn’t run into anyone in the hallway. He didn’t want any of his crewmates to catch him with Bean just yet, fearing that they might decide the little thing should meet the same fate as White.

Back in the quarters, Orange plopped Bean down on his bunk while he retrieved the extra meal packet he kept hidden in the bottom of his tool bag. Technically he wasn’t supposed to have it—they weren’t supposed to eat outside of designated mealtimes because it required opening their visors which made them vulnerable in case of an O2 malfunction (not that that stopped most of Orange’s crewmates on this ship), but more importantly, it was a meal packed Orange had nicked from Lime when the other astronaut had forgotten it in the Cafeteria once, and he didn’t want to give Lime yet another reason to levy accusations against him. He’d been saving it in case he ever really needed it, but he figured at this point it was more important to try to feed something to Bean.

Orange ripped open the packet and broke off a little chunk of the condensed protein block, then held it out between his fingertips to Bean. The Mini simply stared at it, and then looked back up at him, tilting his head in confusion.

“Okay, yes, I get it, they aren’t the most appealing, but I have no idea what White fed you, so you’re going to have to try it, ok?” Orange said, placing the bit of protein block down on the bed in front of Bean, who leaned down to examine it.

“Just try it…please?” Orange urged.

Bean picked up the protein chunk up between in his stubby arms ( _and holy fuck that was really cute,_ thought Orange) and seemed to sniff it, before opening up his mouth (a thin, normally barely noticeable slit just beneath his “visor”) and placing it inside. He seemed to chew for a moment before letting out a little squeak, looking up at Orange as if to say, “ _More??”_

“Alright, so you like that, that’s good,” Orange said, breaking off another chunk at placing it before Bean, who gobbled it up happily. “I can’t say I agree with you—personally I think these protein blocks are disgusting, but at least they’re nutritious.”

Orange broke the protein block in half inside the packet, and then placed half of it down on the bed for Bean. He then flipped up his visor and ate the other half, figuring that a whole bar would be too much for Bean’s tiny stomach and it seemed like a shame to let the rest of the bar go to waste, no matter how bland it tasted.

Bean plopped down, sitting with his small legs sticking out and rapidly nibbling on his half of the bar, holding it steady between his arms.

Orange watched him eat, trying not to think about how _cute_ the image was. God, he was turning into Pink, wasn't he? Bean quickly devoured the entire bar, letting out a miniscule ‘burp!’ when he was done and looking very pleased with himself.

“Okay little guy,” Orange said, not able to contain a small smile. “Break’s over. I got tasks to do, so you just stay right here until I get back, you understand? _Stay here._ ”

He moved the blanket on his bed over to slightly cover Bean, who made a protesting cry. He immediately wiggled his way out from under the blanket.

“No, Bean, here—” Orange said, moving the blanket back around him. “You gotta stay here, I can’t watch you while I’m doing my tasks and I don’t want the others finding you.”

“Mmm?” Bean peeped, not understanding what Orange was trying to do.

Making sure Bean was securely wrapped in the blanket enough that none of his other crewmates would notice him if they came in, Orange stood up and picked up his tool bag, moving towards the door. He looked back at Bean, who was staring at him from where his little face peeked out of the blanket nest.

 _“Stay there, Bean,_ ” whispered Orange reassuringly. _“I’ll be back soon.”_

Orange had barely made it out the door way and a couple steps down the hall before he felt something small trying to cling to his boot.

“Maaa?” Bean said, looking up at him earnestly.

“Holy _shit_ you’re fast,” Orange cursed, quickly leaning down and plucking Bean off his leg. He turned back to the quarters and placed Bean down on his bed once again.

“No. Bean. Listen to me. You have to stay right here.”

“No?” Bean said back, tiny droplets of water beginning to form around the edge of the Mini’s “visor.” “Noo?” he repeated.

“Shit Bean, I didn’t mean, don’t cry—I just…I just need to do my tasks…” Orange tried to console him, picking Bean up and petting him.

“No!” Bean began to cry.

“Okay, listen, I didn’t mean to tell you no. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’m just trying to keep you safe, okay bud?” Orange said, wrapping Bean in the blanket again, but within seconds he had wriggled out and wrapped his tiny body around Orange’s arm. “Ma. No.” Bean said as firmly as his tiny voice would allow.

“Goddamnit,” Orange cursed. Clearly Bean wasn’t going to let Orange go anywhere without him. Spotting his tool bag at his feet, Orange had an idea. He gathered up some of the tools he rarely used and shoved them into the storage container under his bed, then sectioned off the rest into one area of his bag. “Okay Bean, let’s try this,” he said.

Orange picked Bean up and placed him into the open area of the tool bag, Bean’s small head just barely poking out of the top.

“How’s that? This way you can come with me, as long as you promise to be very, very quiet, okay?”

Orange picked up the tool bag, trying to model to Bean how this was going to work. Seeming to understand the arrangement, Bean snuggled down into the fabric of the bag, making himself comfortable.

“Alright buddy,” Orange said, eager to finally get back to his tasks, “Let’s go.”

Considering he was carrying around the Mini of his now-dead crewmate in a bag, things went surprisingly better than Orange had expected. He finished his rewiring in Admin, and was able to complete his upload and download of data to MIRA HQ in Comms with little trouble, as long as he occasionally reached down and gave Bean a reassuring pat. Even more thankfully, he didn’t encounter many of his crewmates—just Purple who stopped into Comms with the solemn task of uploading Blue’s death report to HQ, and Grey in the hallway near admin, who gave him a respectful nod.

By the time the dinner bell rang, Orange was just finishing his last task—a small bit of rewiring of a panel in Storage.

“Good work buddy,” he whispered to Bean, who’d seemed to have fallen asleep in the tool bag. “We made it through the day.” Orange packed up his things and headed up to the Cafeteria, where he was hit with a bitter feeling of guilt after what had happened here earlier today. He was the first one there, and sat down at the center table after retrieving his meal packet from the dispenser, placing his tool bag down besides him.

“Orange,” Green greeted him, sitting down in the seat next to Orange.

“Captain.”

“Sorry about…well, the whole awful affair earlier. I’m afraid it’s been a hard day for all of us. But I wanted to thank you for your overrides of the airlock systems. Perhaps that’s not a thing you want to be thanked for, but you were the only one who knew how it could be done, and without you we might still have a murderer in our midst,” Green said, more gently than Orange knew his captain’s commanding voice was capable of.

“You’re right, it isn’t something I want to be thanked for. We threw one of our own out into the void to die, and we didn’t even hear her out,” Orange said. “But we did it. All of us. We all voted to throw her out equally, and that’s something we’re all going to have to live with, just like I have to live with the fact that I’m the one that made it possible.”

“Son, I know it was a hard choice, but—”

“That’s the thing, though,” Orange said in a cold, sad voice. “It wasn’t a hard choice. Not really. Because, well…I trust that you and Purple really saw what you said you did. I know…I know I don’t know you all that well, but I trust you, and you said you saw White do it. She was a murderer, and there wasn’t any other choice.”

It was a moment before Green finally laid a hand on Orange’s arm, and said, “I don’t think any of us will ever be proud of that choice, except maybe Purple, who felt like it was justice for what happened to the one she loved. But I’m glad…I’m glad I have your trust, Orange.”

“Thanks, Green.”

Green looked as if there was more he wanted to say, but he was interrupted by the others entering the room, retracting his hand. Orange’s fellow crewmates all retrieved their meals and sat down around the table.

“Hello, everyone,” Pink said sadly, clearly still not yet back to her usual perky self.

No one responded, all of them clearly not up to talk. They all began to dig into their meal packets in silence.

“HQ sends their condolences,” said Purple finally in a dull voice. “For both Blue…and White. But they were pleased that we thwarted the Imposter threat.”

 _But how sure are we that White was really an Imposter?_ Orange wanted to say. Thankfully he had the wherewithal to keep his mouth shut.

They all ate quietly for a few more moments. But then, to Orange’s absolute horror, the silence was shattered by a small noise from his bag and Bean poking his head out, interested by the smell of food. Before Orange could grab him, Bean hopped up out of the bag, quickly scurrying up Orange’s leg and into his lap, then up on to the table.

 _“Holy fuck!!”_ screeched Cyan, dropping his protein block in surprise, which Bean eagerly tackled and began nibbling on.

“Bean!!” Orange exclaimed, scooping up the Mini and his stolen food into his hands.

“Orange! What is the meaning of this?” Green barked as the others gaped in shock.

“That’s White’s Mini!” said Pink, eyes widening. “White would let Mr. Fluffykins play with him sometimes!”

“Guys—” Orange began.

“The hell are you doing with the Imposter’s Mini, Orange?” interrupted Lime. “Seems kinda sus. You were acting weird earlier too, and now you’ve got White’s Mini? What are you, like, her _Imposter buddy_ or something?”

“No! No, that’s not it at all Lime, stop _fucking_ saying I’m suspicious! I just found him, okay! He got left behind when you all were restraining White and I found him alone in the Cafeteria later!”

Orange gripped Bean a little tighter, the Mini still totally absorbed in its treat. “I just…he just looked so alone, and I didn’t want to leave him, and I was afraid you guys would throw him out the airlock like you did to White! And I didn’t want that! Because he’s just a Mini, he’s innocent! He didn’t have anything to do with what White did!” he said, voice rising as he tried to convince his crewmates that Bean wasn’t a threat. “I’m sorry I hid him but…he doesn’t deserve to die, okay? Even if White was the Imposter, he didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Calm down Orange,” Purple said. “He just startled us is all. Nobody’s saying he needs to be ejected.”

“I kinda was gonna,” said Lime, causing Orange to give him a death glare.

“Orange is right, White’s Mini isn’t a threat!” interjected Pink. “I know all about Minis, and there isn’t any way any of them could _possibly_ do anything wrong!”

She turned to Green. “Please, Green, I promise—they’re totally harmless! He’s just a little guy! Can he stay? Please? Pretty please?? I mean it seems like Orange is taking care of it which I think is amazing because I’ve been telling him to get a Mini forever and look at him he’s already a _great dad_ and Mr. Fluffykins loves playing with other Minis and he’ll be sooo sad if he doesn’t have anyone to play with and plus _look at this widdle guy_ he’s so cute you wouldn’t kill something this cute would you?” Pink said, seemingly without taking a single breath.

“The Mini is already cleared in our crew manifest since he was White’s, Captain,” said Grey. “There’s no issue as long as Orange cares for him.”

“I…alright,” conceded Green. “If you take full responsibility for his wellbeing, then I see no reason to object to it staying.”

“Hey, wait, are none you really concerned about this?” Yellow asked, refusing to be left out of the conversation. “It was White’s Mini, that’s kind of sus—”

“Say ‘sus’ again and I will break your kneecaps,” Grey interrupted, with no deviation from her standard monotone.

The noise in the room rose as the various crewmates began to argue and talk over one another. Orange clutched Bean tighter, who was starting to notice the tension in the room and looked up at Orange nervously. “It’s okay, Bean—” he whispered, but was soon drowned out by the other voices echoing around the Cafeteria.

“Grey! That was out of line—”

“It’s a _MINI,_ Yellow!! They can’t harm anyone!! They’re designed to be perfectly soft and sweet—”

“I’m just saying it’s a little sus—”

 _“KNEECAPS._ ”

“Is everyone forgetting that that little thing just stole my food???”

“I say we vote Orange out,” said Lime calmly, causing the room to instantly fall silent.

“ _Are you…are you….”_ Orange stuttered, seething with rage, “ _Are you out of your GODDAMN MIND??_ What the _fuck_ did I ever do to you? Why the fuck are you just deciding all of a sudden that I…that I what, need to _DIE??_ ” he yelled, properly angry now.

“I don’t know. I just don’t trust you. You’re just too suspicious.”

“What the hell, Lime,” said Purple.

“That was totally uncalled for,” agreed Pink.

“Yeah dude, I mean…I don't know….Orange is _weird_ , but that kinda…doesn’t seem like enough to…kill him,” Cyan said uncertainly, clearly uncomfortable saying anything against Lime.

Lime narrowed his eyebrows and placed his hands flat on the table. He shook his head. “None of you see it, do you? None of you see how he’s manipulating you. He’s been sus since the second we all set foot on this ship, and I bet he’s White’s little Imposter pal. That’s why he’s adopting that…thing. He’s gonna kill you all just like White killed Blue and when that happens I’m going to say I told you so.”

“That is…that is _so…”_ Orange started, but was interrupted by a pained yelp from in his hands, where he realized he had been squeezing Bean a little too tightly in his anger. _Shit, I’m sorry Bean_.

“Orange. Why don’t you retire to your quarters for the night,” said Green. It wasn’t a suggestion.

“But—”

“Dinner is over, anyways. We all have evening tasks to do. Lime, I think you need to learn some discipline, so I’m assigning you to sweep the _entirety_ of Storage. No buts,” commanded Green.

Lime looked as if he was going to argue, but Orange didn’t stay to find out. He gathered Bean and his tool bag and walked back to his quarters as quick as he could.

Back at his bunk, Orange set Bean down on the bed and flopped down next to him. Orange took off his helmet, gloves, and boots and flung them all to the side. He wasn’t really supposed to take off that much of his suit unless he was changing, but right now, Orange didn’t care.

 _How could Lime just accuse me like that? I never did anything wrong!_ Orange thought bitterly. _He’s just a bully who is trying to get back at me because I don’t play his little game and adore him like his little cronies. So what if I don’t like talking to people all the time and keep to myself? So what if I don’t like_ him? _That doesn’t mean I’m automatically evil!_

 _Or maybe it does, in his eyes at least,_ Orange thought, rolling over and burying his face in his pillow. _And he said he thought Bean should be ejected! Who does that? Who would want to kill something innocent like him in cold blood?_

Orange flipped over to look at Bean, who was sitting on the bed playing with his legs and chirping shrilly in delight.

_A fucking psychopath, that’s who. Lime's a psychopath who's going to get us all killed._

Orange sat up and reached over to tickle Bean, who rolled around at the contact.

“You’re a good boy, Bean,” he said. “You deserve to be kept away from meanies like Lime, isn’t that right? Lime’s just a big old meanie pants with a stick up his ass and undiagnosed personality problems and a vendetta against my life.”

Bean giggled obliviously as Orange continued to tickle him.

“He’s even the one who suggested we vote off White first—holy shit,” said Orange, eyes widening. He picked up Bean and placed him on his lap, petting his side. “Wait a minute, let me…oh my god. That _is_ what happened, isn’t it? We weren’t even thinking of that until Lime suggested it, and before that he was throwing blame at me until Green and Purple confirmed it was White. And now he’s suggesting _I get voted off_ —but why? What does he have to gain from all that?”

 _“Wait._ Holy…holy _SHIT_ …what’s if _he’s_ an Impos— _Hey!”_ Orange yelped, feeling a sudden sharp pain in his hand and looking down to find Bean’s mouth over his thumb.

“Ouch!” Orange said, yanking back his hand. “No biting, Bean!”

Bean seemed less than concerned, rolling over and wiggling his little legs.

“Maa!” he cheeped happily.

Orange laughed, finding it difficult to stay mad at him. “Silly boy,” he said, which caused Bean to squeak in delight even more.

Orange glanced down to examine where Bean had bit his hand, which… really kind of hurt, actually. It was little, but there was a definite circular bitemark imprinted into his thumb, already starting to bead with tiny droplets of blood.

 _Huh. I didn’t think they had teeth sharp enough to do that_ , Orange thought. _Too bad I took my gloves off. He’s probably just like…teething or something. I really gotta ask Pink more about these things if I’m gonna be caring for one._

Shrugging, Orange wiped the small amount of blood on his sheets and gathered up his blankets around him and Bean, who he placed next to him on his pillow. He figured after the day he’d had, it was probably best to just go to bed and get some sleep. Orange had a lot of tasks to complete again tomorrow, after all.

“Alright, night-night Bean,” he said to the Mini, giving him a little pat. “We’re gonna go to sleepytime now, okay? So lie down and go to bed.”

“Maaa,” Bean said, already sounding sleepy.

“Yup, ‘ _maa’_ to you too. Sleep tight, little buddy.”

Orange turned out the light next to his bunk, and drifted off to sleep.

Orange gasped awake to a dark room. He could hear the snores of his other crewmates, coupled with the soft breathing of Bean on his pillow next to him. But Orange…. _God…._ Orange felt _weird._

It was like that unnerving sensation of feeling like you need to throw up, but being unable to do so. And his body also felt bizarre, sparky and bubbly as if there was an electricity just below his skin that was trying to get out.

And on top of all that, he felt…hungry. Not just a normal hunger, either—this was unlike anything Orange had ever experienced before. It was almost as if it was a Hunger with a capital H—more intense, more extreme, more desperate. It felt like he was burning from the inside out, like there was something that he _needed_ but he didn’t know what. It _hurt_ and he _wanted—_

 _Fuck._ Orange needed to get out of here.

As silently as he could, Orange slipped on his gear and his helmet and tip-toed out of the room, trying not to run and wake up his crewmates.

_The MedBay. He needed to go to the MedBay._

It was only across the hall from the sleeping quarters, and there was a private bathroom in there. He stumbled across the hallway, remembering that Grey and Yellow had the night shift today and praying that both of them were hanging out in Security watching the cameras, which didn’t cover this area, and not out patrolling the ship.

Reaching the bathroom, Orange fumbled trying to get the handle open. He tripped over his feet trying to get inside, just barely catching himself against the wall.

Gasping for air, Orange pulled off his helmet and threw it to the side, steadying himself against the sink with his hands. His insides still _burned_ , and that horrible sensation of _Hunger_ hadn’t subsided in the least. Sweat beaded off Orange’s face and it felt like the very surface of his skin was shifting and bubbling.

 _“What the….”_ He gasped, trying to catch his breath, _“What the fuck is happening to me?”_

Orange brought his head up to face his reflection in the mirror and what he saw made his blood turn cold. Before his very eyes, his face seemed to change, brown eyes shifting to blood red and his pupils elongating into slits. His mouth was forced open with rapidly-sharpening teeth and a tongue darting out it, long and barbed, dripping with saliva. The worst was what Orange saw behind him, ripping and forcing their way out of the back of his suit: long black tentacles writhing and shifting, moving in time with his rapid breath.

 _Oh my god. Oh my god,_ he thought, panic looking to overtake him as all sort of new sensations ripped through his body. Orange could feel the tentacles as clearly as if they were an arm or a leg, could feel the cold recirculated air of the MedBay bathroom brushing against them and the rough slide of fabric against them where they’d forced their way through his suit. He could feel his razor sharp teeth against the surface of his new tongue, which lolled out of his mouth, occasionally flicking and tasting the air like a snake. _He could taste the air_ —the feeling of the stale recycled oxygen, the cold taste of metal, the bitter chemicals from the MedBay’s medicine supply, and the wet, hot, _flesh_ of _humans._

Orange felt the Hunger spike in his chest, the desire to _rip and tear and feed_. God, he was _starving._ It was like he’d never experienced the taste of food in his life and he needed…

_He needed…._

Once again he met the gaze of the red slit-pupiled eyes in the mirror, seeing the fear in them that he knew was his own.

“What the hell is happening to me?” Orange said again, watching the deadly tongue and razor-sharp mouth form the words.

_Imposter._ That was the only word that came to mind. Somehow, _impossibly_ , he’d become one of the monsters that were terrorizing the MIRA ships and bases all across the populated galaxy. It wasn’t a mind controlling parasite, or some alien shapeshifter taking over his body, he didn’t think—Orange still felt like himself, with the exception of the serious changes to his body and this Hunger, this _desire_ he kept feeling.

His newly-enhanced hearing picked up on a set of small plop-like footsteps and a tiny peep from behind him, and Orange’s new instincts drove to act without thinking, whirling around and snarling at the intruder, baring his teeth and raising his tentacles to look more imposing.

It was only Bean, who jumped back with a yelp of fright away from the door, which Orange had forgotten to close in his rush to get inside.

“Oh god, Bean,” Orange said, dropping to his knees and feeling his tentacles retract. He reached out to allow Bean to hop into his hand, which he did after a moment of hesitation. “I’m so sorry, I…. I don’t know what’s going on or why this is happening to me and I…” Orange trailed off with a choked sob. “I’m sorry if I scared you. I didn’t mean it…I’m…I’m scared too.”

Bean tilted his head to the side, still clearly not understanding what Orange was saying. But, then, to Orange’s horror, Bean did something he couldn’t have imagined—the Mini let out a squeaky growl and revealed a tiny, fang-filled mouth, complete with a small barbed tongue of his own. Bean then flicked his tongue against Orange’s cheek, but not harshly—almost as a gesture of…affirmation?

“B..Bean?” Orange whispered, cogs beginning to turn in his mind.

“What is…are you…. _how can you…._ you’re…..” he stuttered. “Did you….did _you_ do this to me?”

Bean squeaked and flicked his tongue at Orange again, then flopped over on his side in Orange’s hand. Carefully, Orange reached out his other hand slowly petting Bean’s belly. The little creature leaned over and nibbled gently at Orange’s fingers, tongue weaving around them. If it wasn’t so alien and shocking to Orange…he’d call the action almost…affectionate.

“God, _Bean_ ,” Orange whispered hoarsely, feeling his own tongue dart out and flick against the Mini, who squeaked at the action.

“Maaa..maa,” he said lovingly, pressing his head against Orange’s hand.

Orange slowly ran his thumb up and down Bean’s side, feeling a _shift_ inside as his fangs and tongue retracted, appearance returning to normal. But Orange’s mind continued to race a thousand miles an hour as he sat there on the floor, suit full of holes and _Hunger_ still deep in his chest.

_What the hell did you do to me, Bean?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know how i said in the notes of chapter 2 that i had to split it up? yeah, this last chapter was so long i literally had to split it again because I wanted all chapters to be about the same length. But don't worry, I'm not going to make you wait and I'm posting both at once!

_Okay. Okay. I can handle this. I can…work though this, whatever this is, I just need to stay calm,_ thought Orange, trying to steady his breathing. _I just need to…figure this out! Yes, that’s right, this is all going to be fine, I just need to, uh...not panic._

The first problem was the Hunger. It still burned deep inside him, telling him how _starving_ he was, how much he needed to **_BiteHuntKill_** _because he was so hungry, his baby was hungry and they needed food, it was the only thing that mattered._ Orange felt that so deeply it made his body shudder. Every one of these new, strange instincts were telling him to go across the hall, go back into the sleeping quarters to where he could smell the hot, fresh blood of _humans_ and feast.

 _No!_ Orange told himself, resisting with every ounce of his willpower. No matter what his body was telling him to do, those were still his crewmates and he found the idea of hurting any of them abhorrent.

 _“I won’t kill them,_ ” he whispered. Bean was still in his hand and Orange petted him gently, finding the action was calming him down.

 _But your baby, your baby is starving!_ protested Orange’s instincts. _Your child is hungry, so hungry, and it needs to be fed, the others will not feed it, they will HURT and KILL him!_

Orange growled in spite of himself and felt his teeth shifting in, rage rising at the very thought that anyone would hurt what was _his._

Seconds later the feeling was replaced by shock and horror at himself and at the intensity of these feelings he had little control over.

“Maa?” Bean asked, tugging on his fingers, clearly wondering why Orange had stopped petting him for a moment.

 _Bean…me turning into….this, that had to be his doing, right?_ Orange asked, resuming his cuddling of Bean. His eyes widened. _When he bit me, earlier…that was the first time I’d removed any part of my suit around him. That was the first time he had contact with my skin, so maybe that’s why he bit me then and not before. But if he’s an Imposter somehow, then he must feel the same Hunger that I do. So why didn’t he try to, like, EAT my hand instead of just biting it? Because I’ve seen his teeth, I know he could have bit the thing clean off. But he only nipped me. Is that when it happened? Was there something in his saliva that…changed me into this?_

Orange picked up Bean and held him in front of his still uncovered face, helmet lying in the corner of the bathroom where it had fell when Orange had flung it off. Bean giggled, wiggling in delight as Orange squeezed him gently. Again Bean opened up his tiny mouth full of small, razor sharp points and flicked his long tongue against Orange.

Orange still didn’t know as much about the Imposters as a whole as most of the people at MIRA, because he wasn’t a scientist or researcher. He was hired for his technical and mechanical know-how, but that was pretty much it. But as he was now apparently one of the alien monsters hunting space crews all over the galaxy, he could say for certain that the hypothesis that they were nonhuman shapeshifters was dead wrong. It was more like…some sort of virus, that apparently Minis could get affected by as well.

 _The Imposters…well despite being one, I don’t know how they…WE I guess,_ he corrected himself, _reproduce. I don’t know what this life cycle looks like. Are new Imposters created only by infection? Or can… can we have children?_

Because despite the evidence of this being some sort of biological change induced to his body by some sort of unknown infection, all Orange’s new instincts were telling him that _Bean was his child, his flesh and blood, and he had to **ProtectFeedKill.** _And Bean…well, the Mini certainly seemed to have…imprinted on him almost, seemingly adopting Orange as his parent. So clearly there was some sort of symbiotic relationship happening, rooted in their DNA. If Imposters could have offspring, and Bean was fulfilling the role of the child, one now without a parent, perhaps his instincts demanded he find a replacement.

 _Maybe…maybe it’s some sort of…evolutionary thing,_ Orange wondered, trying to put the pieces together in his head. _Bean is clearly too small to kill anyone on his own, and he’s also too small to effectively defend himself against humans who are much bigger than he is. So maybe…maybe Bean has a biological imperative to find someone who can provide for him, and then infect them to give them the means to protect him._

If that had been the goal, it had certainly been successful.

But he couldn’t ponder on this anymore. The Hunger was tearing him apart, barely contained, demanding that he find _flesh_ and find it _now._

Orange could still smell the scent of his crewmates fast asleep across the hall, and then Grey and Yellow down further in the ship. But there was another scent, not as strong, but still there.

 _Blue_ , Orange realized with a gasp. Green and Grey had put her body in the freezer here in the MedBay, because Purple wanted to give her a proper burial the next time they made planetfall.

Orange’s stomach gurgled. He felt bad about what he was considering, but…it was better than killing one of his crewmates, right?

Rising to his feet, Orange knew what he had to do. He picked up Bean and placed the Mini on his shoulder, and then quickly making his way to the MedBay door, peeking his head into the hallway to check that no one was there. When he saw the coast was clear, Orange flipped open the door control panel and quickly manipulated the wires, causing the door to slide shut and stay that way. He felt confident that no one would notice for a little bit seeing how everyone else was still asleep and there were no cams watching the door, but still, he needed to hurry.

Orange walked briskly over to the cold storage, cracking it open. Inside with persevered specimens and other supplies lay Blue’s body, carefully wrapped up. The smell was overwhelming, but for Orange, not in a bad way—although cold and not fresh, it smelled like the most delicious thing in the universe.

 _God,_ he thought, mouth watering as his jaw rippled open, tongue long and dripping as it escaped from his mouth, _Am I really going to do this?_

His choice was made for him when Bean let out a squeaky growl and hopped down from Orange’s shoulder, ripping apart the wrapping around Blue’s body and tearing into the flesh.

 _Fuck it,_ thought Orange, finally giving in to his instincts and allowing them to take over, fully shifting into his Imposter form with tentacles rising from his back and mind growing foggy with Hunger. He took his first bite, and all human thoughts faded from Orange’s mind.

It was only a few minutes later when Orange regained his full awareness, but the mangled body in front of him and the feeling of the deep Hunger finally being stated within him told Orange all he needed to know. Bean also seemed to have eaten his fill, looking up at Orange and chirping, then scurrying up his arm to nuzzle his little body against Orange’s face.

“Mamaa,” he said adoringly.

Orange tried to take solace in Bean’s happiness and ignore the horror of what he had just done.

 _I didn’t have any choice,_ Orange told himself.

He wondered if that’s what White told herself when she stabbed Blue. That she was just doing what she had to.

 _At least I didn’t have to kill anybody,_ thought Orange.

 _…This time,_ the traitorous voice in the back of his mind said. _What happens when there’s nothing left of Blue?_

Orange told it to shut up and carefully moved to re-wrap Blue’s body as much as he could, hoping that if he did it would buy him and Bean some time before anyone realized what had happened. But before he could, he was interrupted by loud pounding on the door and a muffled yelling.

His eyes widened. _“Shit!!”_

Frantically, Orange dashed into the bathroom and picked up his helmet, securing it as he ran back into the main room.

 _“What the hell do we do, Bean?”_ he whispered, holding the Mini tight in his arms.

Then, Orange spotted it—one of the air vents in the floor, with an easily removable lid that allowed crewmates to open it and clean the attached filter. The vent wasn’t huge, but if Orange squeezed, he could definitely crawl inside and move through the ventilation system to another part of the ship.

He quickly flipped open the lid and with only a second of hesitation, hopped inside and closed the lid behind him.

“Hold on Bean, this is gonna be a tight one,” Orange said to the Mini, and just in time too, as with his enhanced hearing Orange could hear the MedBay door sliding open and someone entering, muttering “Holy fuck,” in a voice he couldn’t quite place.

Orange didn’t have time to worry about that. As quietly as he could, he crawled through the vent, desperately trying to remember the ventilation layout of the ship. Orange spotted another opening and scooted over to it, peering through the filter and vent lid. By the amount of wires and blinking lights, Orange deduced that this was the vent leading to Electrical. He flipped up the lid and hoisted himself out, still holding Bean tight.

“Fucking hell,” Orange muttered. “That was close.” Bean seemed to chirp in agreement.

Looking down at his suit, Orange realized that it was still riddled with holes from where his tentacles had poked through, and there was no explanation he could give that the others would believe as to why it looked that way.

“Okay, okay, think about this Orange,” he said to himself, pacing back and forth while holding Bean tight. “You need to get a replacement suit. That goes without saying. But your change of clothes is in quarters and you need to get in there without anyone seeing you. How the hell are you going to do that?”

“Oh! I’ve got it!” he said, an idea coming to mind. “Someone was trying to get into MedBay, which means they’re going to find what happened in there. But it also means that the others will likely be drawn to see it, meaning that they’re not going to be walking around the ship. And there’s no camera watching there, so Grey and Yellow would have never seen me enter, but they wouldn’t have seen me leave quarters either. So theoretically, the reason I wouldn’t be in my bunk is that I couldn’t sleep and I got up and took a walk, and they _just happened to be looking away_ when I walked by any cameras, and I couldn’t have been in MedBay because the doors were found locked.”

He knew it wasn’t a solid alibi, but it’s the best he could come up with. But that still didn’t solve the suit problem, as there was no way to get back into quarters without passing MedBay, where everyone would be.

 _Storage,_ Orange realized. Because of the length of their trip, each of the crewmates had an extra suit in Storage. All Orange had to do was get down there and change his suit, dispose of the old one in the trash chute, and then wander back to MedBay as if he’d just been out for a stroll around the ship.

Sitting Bean up carefully on his shoulder, Orange moved over to Electrical’s door and peered around, seeing no one. Then it was just a short jog down the hall into Storage, where Orange popped open his crate and removed the extra suit.

 _Please, whatever higher power is listening, please don’t let anyone walk in while I strip,_ he begged silently.

Thankfully luck seemed to be on his side once again; Storage mercifully empty except for Bean as Orange ducked behind a crate and changed his suit. He plopped Bean back on his shoulder and stuffed the destroyed suit into the garbage, pulling the lever to release the contents out into space.

Then he began to make his way back to MedBay, Bean in tow.

Mentally, Orange had tried to prepare what he would say when he faced the others. _I was just out for a walk, I couldn’t sleep, you must have just been looking away when I passed by cams, I don’t even know what’s happening here, who would even do something like this?—_ but what Orange couldn’t have prepared himself for was the actual scene when he arrived back at MedBay.

Yellow, Lime, and Purple were screaming at each other in front of Blue’s ruined corpse, Green and Cyan physically trying to keep them apart. Pink stood off to the side nervously holding her Mini, while Grey stood looking ready to jump in and help Green and Yellow if necessary.

“What the hell is going on here?” Orange asked Pink, who seemed to be the only one that saw him enter.

“S…someone….some _thing_ ripped apart Blue’s body. Tore it completely to pieces!” she sniffled.

“When did this happen?” he asked, trying his absolute best to sound shocked. Orange also made sure to keep a firm grip on Bean in his hand, slightly afraid that although the Mini had just ate, the smell of unconcealed flesh would attract him to the body and blow their cover.

“J…just n-now, we think. Lime… Lime walked in on Yellow crouched over the body, but Yellow claims that the doors were locked and he just managed to get them open and the room was empty.”

Even without Pink’s explanation, Orange thinks he could have deduced that from the shouting match.

“Lime, I’m your friend!! I’m telling the truth! I didn’t do this! I—I would _never!_ I’m not a…a _fucking cannibal!_ ” shouted Yellow.

“And I’m just supposed to _believe_ that? Believe that while Grey was checking up on the Reactor you _just happened_ to see that the MedBay door was locked shut, even though it’s _not possible to lock this door_? And that what, you single-handedly pried it open and came in to find an empty room and a destroyed body? _AND THEN_ _you didn’t even TRY to wake anyone up?”_

“I told you! You walked in before I could do anything! I was about to come wake everyone up! Lime, dude, come on!! Why would I do a thing like this?”

“Because you’re a _sick fuck_ , Yellow!” screamed Purple. “Who the fuck…who the fuck would _destroy a body?? WHO THE FUCK WOULD DESTROY MY BLUE’S BODY?”_

She broke down crying, slumping back into Green’s arms. “That was…I don’t have anything left. S..she’s gone, and all I wanted was to give her a proper burial. A…and now…” Purple trailed off.

Lime looked like he wanted to say something, but then he spotted Orange and his eyes narrowed.

 _“You,”_ he hissed. “Where the hell have _you_ been this entire time?”

“I was just going for a walk around the ship! I…I couldn’t sleep, and I just needed to get some air, so to speak, and I—”

“I can vouch for him,” Grey interrupted, nipping the expected tirade from Lime in the bud. “I saw him walking around the ship on cams.”

 _Wait, what?_ was what Orange wanted to say, but thankfully he managed to maintain his poker face. _I wasn’t walking around the ship, that’s just a lie. So she’s couldn’t have seen me. Why is she vouching for me, then?_

“I didn’t,” said Yellow with a frown, but to Orange’s relief Grey cut him off by saying coldly, “Probably because you were asleep half the time, Yellow.”

“And you didn’t happen to wake up until Grey _conveniently_ went to check on Reactor,” Lime said patronizingly, as if he was putting it all together. “I’ve heard everything I need to. I move to vote Yellow out on account of being an Imposter.”

 _“WHAT?”_ exclaimed Yellow. “I didn’t do anything! You don’t even have any proof!”

“Lime,” chided Green sternly. “Is this really necessary?”

Lime narrowed his eyes. “He’s sus. If there’s even the chance that anyone else on this ship could be an Imposter, I want them out. Now.”

“Well, I have to vote no on this one,” replied Green firmly. “There’s not enough evidence.”

“Agreed,” said Grey.

“I’m voting no too,” interjected Orange, not wanting to be the last one to speak in a vote again. “I agree it doesn’t look good, but I’m not voting off someone else so soon after we voted off White without letting her say her piece. Yellow deserves a second chance.

“I’m…I’m saying no too,” said Purple, surprising everyone. “I want to catch and punish the person who did this more than anyone else. But I’m not suspicious enough of Yellow to think he’s the one that did this.”

Pink’s Mini squeaked, suddenly drawing all attention to her. She’s been squeezing it a little too tightly, and immediately loosened her grip. “S..sorry Mr. Fluffykins,” she apologized.

“What do you think, Pink?” Orange asked her quietly.

“I…I…” she stuttered. “I… _no. NO._ I vote no! We don’t have enough evidence! We can’t just…we can’t just vote every person off who has even the _least_ bit of circumstantial evidence against them! I voted White because Purple and Green saw her kill Blue. But here, no one saw Yellow do anything! That’s not enough to kill him over! So I’m saying n--no!” she shouted, stuttering at the end, clearly as surprised with her outburst as everyone else.

“Yeah, man,” said Cyan, who was still holding back Lime from before. “It just…we can’t like…we can’t eject everyone on the ship, dude. Yellow’s our bro. He was just in the wrong place, I think. Voting him off ain’t right, Lime.”

“And it’s an obvious no from me,” said Yellow.

Lime wrestled himself out of Cyan’s grip. “You all are fools,” he said. “You all are damn fools. All of you are too weak to do what needs to be done, to take the steps to ensure our survival. I am NOT dying because of the stupidity of all of you! I don’t care. Yellow is sus. So is Orange. And now, honestly, you all are looking pretty sus too because you keep vouching for them. So you’re either all fucking Imposters, or you’re all _fucking stupid!_ ” Lime spat, storming out of the room.

Cyan looked like he was about to go after him, but Green held out an arm and stopped him. “It’s not worth it,” he said. “Lime just needs some time to calm down alone.”

Green turned to the rest of them. “Well, now that we’re all up, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t get to work on our tasks for the day. This ship isn’t going to repair itself,” he said, to which everyone groaned.

 _Back to work it is then_ , thought Orange. _Crisis successfully averted._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The grand finale!

Orange had tasks in Shields, thankfully away from everyone else. Right now it was probably best for him to stay far away from the prying eyes of his other crewmates, even though he wasn’t currently doing anything wrong. It’s just that the last thing we wanted to do was slip up and endanger Bean or himself right now.

While Orange worked on an electrical panel, Bean was consumed with gnawing on a wrench from Orange’s tool bag. He’d tried to get the Mini to play with something else at first, but Bean seemed to enjoy it and as far as Orange could tell it wasn’t hurting him, plus he didn’t exactly have any other toys for Bean to play with.

That amusement seemed to last only so long however, because soon enough Bean climbed up Orange’s body and bounced up and down on his shoulder, squeaking for attention.

“I’m sorry Bean, I can’t give you cuddles right now,” Orange said, not looking away from the wires he was working on. Bean’s short attention span seemed to be suddenly drawn to what Orange was doing with his hands, which he hadn’t been able to see from the floor. Bean scooted himself down Orange’s arm, perching on his hand and staring at the wires.

“You like those, little guy?” Orange laughed. “You see the different colors? They’re like that so we can tell them apart and don’t get them mixed up. There’s no two of the same color in each panel, just like there’s no two of the same color on any one MIRA crew! Apparently MIRA does this for the same reason—so that all of us on a crew are easily distinguished from one another.”

Orange shook his head, a little sadly. “We…when we join MIRA, we aren’t even allowed to use our birth names anymore. We’re only supposed to go by color, because it makes it easier for reports back to HQ. And since they never assign two of the same color to any one ship or outpost, we can easily be identified by those two things. ‘Yellow, Exkelion’; ‘Black, Polus,’ and so on. For the big ships and bases and stuff, where they _have_ to have more than one color for logistical reasons, they’re given a number as well,” he recounted, not even really sure why he was telling the Mini all this. Bean clearly wasn’t going to understand, but Orange guessed that it was just nice to have someone to talk to. Sort of.

Bean leaned closer to the wires.

“Oop, you gotta be careful little one,” Orange said, just as Bean moved to open his mouth and chomp down on the wires.

“No, Bean!” Orange exclaimed, pulling back quickly and placing Bean down on the floor again. “No wires!”

“No?”

“Yes, I…geez, I know you don’t like being told no, but it’s dangerous, bud! Biting wires is no fun! So no-no, okay?” Orange said. He tickled Bean’s side.

“No!” Bean squealed, but not in protest. His _maamaa_ was playing with him, so now it was a fun game. “No! No! No!” he chanted, giggling.

Orange smiled. “Besides ‘ma,’ that’s one of the only words you know, isn’t it?”

“No!” Bean replied. “Maa!”

“Yeah, weirdly enough that’s what I thought you’d say.” Orange moved the wrench Bean had been chewing on before over to him. “I’ll try to find you some more toys soon, but for now you can play with this, alright?”

Orange leaned back up to continue working on the wires. Bean didn’t seem interested in the wrench, choosing instead to run little circles around Orange’s feet, still chanting, “No! Ma! No! Ma! No!”

_Well, at least he’s entertained._

He was about to finish connecting the last wire when an alarm came over the intercom.

_[[WARNING. INNER AIRLOCK ENGAGED. WARNING. OUTER AIRLOCK DISENGAGED]]_

_“_ Holy _Fuck!”_ Orange cursed, just as both doors leading into Shields slid shut. It was an emergency protocol—if the airlock was engaged while the ship was in motion, all the doors automatically closed to quarantine off the cafeteria, in an attempt to make sure oxygen and pressure remained in other areas of the ship. It was kind of a design flaw, actually—if both the inner and outer doors of the airlock got somehow opened while they were in motion, closing the doors wouldn’t stop the ship from being ripped apart. And if that wasn’t the case and they weren’t opening the airlock together to eject someone, locking the doors only prevented them from getting down there and seeing what the hell was going on.

Let’s just say that after being on this ship awhile and having to learn how to override and fix every damn thing, Orange had a few choice words to say to whichever team of idiots designed this thing.

But more importantly, Orange was suddenly struck with the thought of _Oh God, someone is opening the airlock and it’s not me._

He felt his stomach drop in dread. Whatever was happening in the Cafeteria right now couldn’t be good.

_I have to get down there._

Looking around the room at what he had to work with, Orange was fairly certain with a little maneuvering he could get the door open, but then he spotted something in the corner of the room and had a better idea. _The vent._ If he moved through there, he could bypass most of the other doors and get all the way up to Weapons, leaving him then to only have to open a single door.

“C’mon Bean, let’s go!” Orange said, scooping up the Mini and rushing over to the vent. He flipped open the lid and slipped inside.

The ventilation system was still very complicated and Orange didn’t exactly have a perfect mental map of it, but he tried to use his enhanced hearing to focus on the sound of the turret gun controls in Weapons, a faint whirring that sounded different to other noises on the ship due to its connection to the energy canon mounted outside. Crawling as fast as he could, it only took Orange a couple minutes to find the vent letting out into weapons and hop out. Setting Bean on his shoulder, Orange rushed over to the door and ripping off the cover to the control panel.

“C’mon…c’mon,” he muttered, begging the system to let him override the lockdown. The door slid open and Orange rushed through into the Cafeteria.

He froze in horror at the scene in front of him.

“So nice of you to finally join us, Orange!” sneered Lime, leveling a pistol (a _nd what the hell where the FUCK did he get that did he SERIOUSLY raid Weapons and steal a gun)_ at Orange’s head from halfway across the room.

But that wasn’t the chilling part. There, stuck in the airlock, were some of his crewmates-- Orange spotting Pink, Purple, Grey, and Green through the thick glass, and after a moment, Cyan, who was slumped against the wall behind them, bleeding profusely. They were all still alive, _thank god_ , but they were pounding on the door and yelling, and Cyan seemed to be struggling after losing so much blood. Orange didn’t see Yellow anywhere.

“What the FUCK IS THIS?” Orange bellowed at Lime in rage.

“What’s _necessary_ , Orange,” Lime hissed. “You see, over the course of the last 48 hours, you all have proven to me what I always suspected—I can’t trust anyone but myself. I’m not dying on this _fucking spaceship_ , and I’m not going to let anyone get in my way. All of you _idiots_ seem perfectly happy to let each other get away with all this suspicious shit, giving Imposters the perfect chance to strike and tear us all apart.”

“No,” he continued, steadying his pistol, “I’ve learned that the only way to be truly sure all the Imposters and anyone who would be dumb enough to believe their lies are gone…is to do it myself.”

“Lime, this is insane! These people haven’t _done anything!_ And besides, you can’t fly this whole ship by yourself! It’s literally not possible!”

“You know,” Lime said, taking a step closer, “I _never_ trusted you, Orange. You never liked me, and I don’t trust people who don’t trust me. You’ve been doing suspicious stuff this whole time: never talking to anyone, always wanting to be _alone_ , sympathizing with those _traitors_ Yellow and White, not to mention not killing White’s little _pet_ and keeping it for yourself. Where is that disgusting little creature, anyways? I want to make sure I get this job done cleanly.”

Frantically Orange reached up to his shoulder where he’d put Bean last, but he wasn’t there. _Oh god, Bean—_

Orange felt his Imposter instincts boil to the surface, screaming at him to _find my baby, where is my baby, w **hat have they done with my baby.** _He was seconds from shifting into his Imposter form, but Orange used all his willpower to halt it. But the panic remained.

Then, out of nowhere, Bean crawled on top of one of the tables near Lime and screeched, mouth full of fangs and little barbed tongue darting out of his mouth.

“ _Bean!_ ” cried Orange, stumbling towards him, just as Bean launched himself off the table at Lime, teeth ripping through Lime’s suit and sinking into his arm.

“FUCK!” Lime howled in pain, failing his arm and causing Bean to lose his grip and fly into the wall, falling down and hitting the floor with a wet plop.

“ _Little bastard,_ how _DARE you_ attack me!” Lime said aiming his pistol at where Bean’s little body lay.

Filled with absolute rage and urged on by the need to _destroy_ anyone who _dared_ hurt Bean, Orange couldn’t contain his instincts any longer.

“You won’t touch him,” Orange said voice brimming with cold fury, feeling himself begin to shift into his Imposter form. “He is **_MINE_** _.”_

“O…Orange?” Lime said, turning as he noticed the new timbre in Orange’s voice and the aggressive shift in his behavior.

Lime shifted his aim from Bean back to Orange.

Orange didn’t care about the weapon, taking a step closer. Lime’s eyes filled with fear, beginning to realize that something in the room had seriously changed.

“Listen, we can talk about this—”

 ** _“No,”_** Orange hissed in an inhuman voice, allowing his tentacles to burst through his suit behind him. **_“You’re dangerous. You put everyone on this ship in danger! Where’s Yellow, Lime? You ejected him, didn’t you? That’s what the airlock alarm was. You figured out what I did to override the airlock and threw Yellow out.”_**

He took another step closer, whipping his tentacles and knocking Lime’s gun out of his hands and across the room.

“My God,” Lime gasped, tripping over his feet as he stumbled back and fell to the floor. “It’s you…you’re the Imposter!”

Orange growled, continuing, **_“You are a threat to all of us. Even right now you’re trying to throw out the rest of the crew! You have the audacity to eject innocents just because you’re ‘suspicious’ of them! And on top of that, you HURT MY BABY. You were going to KILL him!”_** he screeched.

Orange could taste Lime’s fear on the air, which only served to urge him on.

 ** _“I wasn’t an Imposter at first,”_** he says. ** _“I didn’t choose this. But I can’t change that fact now.”_**

 ** _“But you,_** ” Orange says, pausing slightly, **_“YOU, have killed more people on this ship than I ever have. I’ve killed no one. You, on the other hand, killed your friend, are RIGHT NOW trying to kill the rest of us out of your own warped self-interest. You’d let us DIE as long as you got to walk away in the end!”_** he hissed, helmet shattering as his tongue whipped through the glass, fully revealing his face, a mouth filled with deadly teeth and his red-slitted eyes.

**_“No…as far as I’m concerned…the only monster on this ship…is YOU.”_ **

And with that, Orange allowed himself to be fully overtaken by instinct, the desire to protect his crew, his _baby,_ lunging at Lime and using his powerful tongue to smash a hole in Lime’s helmet and rip apart the other man’s throat as Orange’s tentacles reached out and held him in place.

It’s brutal. Orange knows it, even in the midst of his blood-rage. He knows the others must be watching on in horror as he tears Lime to shreds, easily ripping off limb after limb with his teeth. He keeps going and going even after he logically knows that the man must be dead, mind filled only with **_ProtectRipDestroyKillKillKillKill_**

Eventually he regains his senses and feels himself shift back. He’s covered in blood and bits of flesh and he refuses to look at his fellow crewmates and he walks slowly over to the airlock control panel and opens the door. Orange doesn’t bother to look at them, turning now to the only thing he cares about: Bean.

The Mini is still on the floor, tiny body looking like a small stuffed animal that a child had carelessly strewn aside.

“Bean,” he choked, tears forming in his eyes as he picked up the little being and cradled it in his hands.

“… _m…maa,”_ Bean said weakly, after a moment.

 _“Oh, fuck, Bean, thank god,”_ Oranges cried, closing his eyes and hugging Bean to his chest. “I thought I lost you.”

He’s pulled out of his overwhelming relief when he hears the click of a gun cocking behind him. Slowly, Orange stood up and turned around, refusing to hold up his hands and let go of Bean.

Green holds Lime’s pistol at his head, flanked by Grey and Purple on each side. Behind them, Orange can see Pink carefully helping the still-bleeding Cyan out of the airlock.

Considering his words, Orange finally says, “I understand what you guys must be thinking. I know, I’d be thinking the same thing. And if you feel you have to kill me, that’s fine, just…look after Bean, okay? He might not be completely, well, _normal_ , but he doesn’t deserve to die. Just promise me you won’t kill him,” he pleads.

“Did you mean what you said? About having not killed anyone?” Purple asked.

Orange frowned, about to ask how they had heard his conversation with Lime, when Grey said, “Lime had tapped into the comms on our suits. Sick fuck wanted to make sure we were able to hear him monologue as he explained why he needed to kill us. So we heard everything.”

“I…yes. That was true, all of it. I wasn’t always an Imposter. Bean, he, _changed me_ , and I didn’t know what was happening. But I’ve never killed anyone. Well…I mean, I guess that’s not true anymore,” he said, bowing his head in shame.

“And…Blue’s body…. _fuck_ Purple, I’m so fucking sorry, that was me,” Orange admitted, still not looking up at the others and keeping his gaze focused on Bean in his arms, petting the Mini reassuringly. “I just…I just woke up and I’d _changed_ and I was so hungry it felt like I couldn’t even breathe. Every cell in my body was telling me I needed to _eat_ and I refused to kill anyone so that was the only alternative. I’m….I know I wasn’t the one to kill her, but you deserved to be able to bury her properly. I’m sorry.”

Purple doesn’t say anything, but just nods, tears in her eyes.

“You really didn’t want any of this, did you Son?” said Green.

Orange shook his head, staring at Bean, who wiggled out of his grasp and scurried up the front of Orange’s suit, crawling inside his helmet through the shattered visor and nuzzled against Orange’s cheek.

Green slowly lowered the gun.

“I think we all owe you a thank you, Orange,” he said. “If it weren’t for you, we might all be floating in space right now.”

Carefully, Orange dared to look up and meet the gaze of his crewmates. They all still looked rattled from the experience they’d just gone through, and he could still see Pink in the back, tending to Cyan’s wounds. Thankfully he seemed to be doing ok, it all looked less fatal once Pink had torn away his bloodied suit to look at what appeared to be only a bullet graze.

“What happened? Before I arrived?” Orange asked.

“Lime seemed to have figured out what you did to override the airlock controls with White,” said Grey. “He must have watched you and gotten the process close enough, but not exactly right, because he didn’t manage to override all the systems, hence why we all heard the alarm. He also apparently didn’t realize that not overriding the doors was in his benefit, because only the half of the ship you were in got locked down. The rest of us weren’t trapped and rushed to the cafeteria when we heard the alarm.”

“And by that time he’d already ejected Yellow,” Orange guessed.

Grey nodded.

“What about Cyan?”

“He was there with Yellow and Lime when it started. Lime tried to get him to force Yellow into the airlock and he refused, so Lime shot Cyan in order to prevent him from getting help or stopping him.” Green answered. “Lime then evidently shot Yellow to incapacitate him and ejected him from the airlock. When the alarm went off and only half the doors closed, Lime dragged Cyan into the airlock and left the inner door open and hid, hoping to lure us all in there. We were so distracted trying to help Cyan that it worked. And if it wasn’t for you coming and stopping him, Lime would have ejected all of us in one go.”

“You saved our lives,” stated Grey. “We aren’t going to kill you.”

“But you can’t stay here either,” Green said. “I hope you can understand, Son. It’s just too much of a risk. We know you don’t want to kill any of us, but we can’t take the chance of allowing you to stay on board with the potential that you might lose control.”

“I understand,” said Orange hoarsely.

“And if MIRA finds you, they’ll kill you. Or lock you away for experimentation, which isn’t much better. You have to go somewhere where they can’t reach you and… _Bean_ ,” continued Green. He furrowed his eyebrows, thinking.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to go with Grey right now and pack your things and some supplies, and we’re going to load it all into the dropship. Then you and the Mini will go as far away from here as you can and find somewhere you’ll both be safe. We’ll tell MIRA HQ that Lime was another Imposter, and that he killed Yellow as well as you, and when we confronted him he tried to flee in the dropship. But we destroyed it with our energy canon to make sure he wouldn’t get away,” he finished darkly. “That way we have an excuse for why the dropship is missing, and a guarantee they won’t go looking for it, and because they think you’re dead they won’t come looking for you either.”

“I don’t--”

“You don’t have to say anything, Orange,” said Green, reaching out and clasping his arm. “Consider this repayment for what you did for us. Once, you told me that you trusted me. Well now I’m asking you to trust me once again. This will work, I promise. Now go collect your things with Grey.”

“Thank you,” Orange whispered.

Like Green asked them to, Orange and Grey went to gather his things from the sleeping quarters. Grey turned her back as Orange bashfully changed out of his yet-again ruined suit and helmet, then helped him put the bloody thing into a bag to discard later.

Bean had been removed from where he had been snuggled against Orange’s face inside his helmet and was now being kept occupied rolling around in Orange’s blanket. Grey and Orange packed up his few extra clothes and nominal amount of personal possessions into another bag.

“I wanted to ask you,” Orange said hesitantly, “Why did you vouch for me by saying you saw me on cams earlier when I said I’d been taking a walk? I know you couldn’t have because that was a lie.”

“Honestly, kid?” Grey said. “I thought you were just lying because you had found a quiet corner to have some, you know, _alone time._ ”

“Alone time? But why would that mean you didn’t think it was weird I was lying about going on a wa—”

“Masturbating,” Grey stated bluntly in her monotone. “I didn’t say anything because I thought you were lying so you didn’t have to admit you had found a quiet little somewhere to _take care of yourself_.”

“Look,” she said, “I know I’m the oldest one on this ship. I’m no ‘spring chicken’ anymore. But I remember being young, and how much I would have thought it sucked to be stuck on a ship in the middle of space with a no-fraternizing rule. So I just figured that you were looking for a way to relax a bit and I didn’t blame you, after the day we’d all had, and I didn’t want to rat you out for that.”

“Ah,” said weakly, highly embarrassed that Grey was thinking he’d run off to do…that.

“Let’s just never speak of this again, alright?” said Grey, clearly also embarrassed although she hid it better than Orange.

Once they were done packing, Orange wrapped up Bean in the blanket he had been playing with and held him in his arms as both he and Grey returned to the Cafeteria. The panel on the floor that hid stairs leading down to where the dropship was docked beneath the main body of the ship was open, and Orange noticed that Lime’s body had also been removed and the room cleaned up.

“I’ll put your things in the dropship,” said Grey, heading down the stairs.

Cyan was no longer being tended to by Pink, and Orange walked over to him to say goodbye.

“Hey, Cyan,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry about all this.”

Cyan shrugged, struggling to his feet. His side was bandaged up.

“I’ll live, mostly thanks to you, dude. I’m sorry…I’m sorry if I was ever mean to you. I…I hung around with Yellow because I liked him, _like-_ liked him, but he only….”

Cyan coughed, clutching his side. Orange moved to help, but Cyan waved him off.

“He only ever had eyes for Lime, but I kept hoping, that one day, maybe…” admitted Cyan sadly. “He never did, but I still stuck around Lime so I could be around him. Lime was a bad influence. And I don’t know if I can make up for what he did, man. But because of you, I can try.”

“Thanks, Cyan.”

“Orange,” said Green, coming up the stairs behind him. “We’re ready.”

Orange gave Cyan a little dip of his head as goodbye and headed down the stairs behind Green.

The dropship was sparsely populated except for the bag of Orange’s things, as well as a small crate of supplies that the rest of the crew was able to spare. Also, slightly to Orange’s horror, he saw a small bundle in the corner wrapped in plastic, with bits of lime-colored space suit and blood clearly peeking through.

“We figured you might…need it,” said Purple quietly. “For later.”

Swallowing thickly, Orange nodded. He set Bean and his blanket down on one of the chairs and turned to look at the remainder of his former crew.

“Thank you,” he said to all of them. “And…I’m sorry.”

“We understand, Orange,” said Pink, her Mini sitting on her shoulder. “We’re going to miss you, especially me and Mr. Fluffykins.”

Her Mini squeaked in affirmation.

“I’m going to miss you too, Pink. And, uh, Mr. Fluffykins of course. Thank you for….thank you for everything,” he said.

With that the others turned and left one by one, heading back up the stairs into the main ship.

“Godspeed, Orange,” said Green, the last one to leave.

Orange nodded in thanks, and Green stepped out and sealed the door behind him.

 _Thank you. Really,_ he thought, eternally grateful to the people who’d let him and Bean live.

Speaking of Bean, the little Imposter was sitting on top of his blanket with his legs out, watching curiously as the dropship door was sealed.

“Maa?”

“We’re alright, Bean,” Orange said, walking over and setting Bean on his shoulder. “We’re safe now, buddy.”

Orange charted a course as far away as the dropship would let him and his finger hovered over the button labeled _LAUNCH_.

After a moment of hesitation, Orange took a deep breath and pressed it, feeling the craft shudder as it undocked from the larger ship. He steadied the Mini on his shoulder so he wouldn’t fall and glanced over at him as the dropship sped off into the void, leaving their former ship behind them.

“It’s just you and me against the universe now, Bean.”

But for Orange, that was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd just like to say thank you to you all for reading this fic. Writing for this fandom is a lot of fun and it's caused me to complete the first multiple-chapter fic I've written in years, which I'm pretty proud of lol  
> As soon as I complete my other Among Us fic, I fully intend to get to work on a sequel for this one, because I'm eager to explore more of Orange and Bean's story (and maybe have them meet up one day with Red and Cyan from my other fic, hint-hint)!  
> Anyways, thanks for reading and for all your lovely comments!


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